1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tines for agricultural machinery and in particular to tines that mount in pairs on a harvester reel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Harvesters, balers and mergers such as may be used for picking up and/or harvesting hay, beans and other agricultural products are well known and provide for mechanized pick up of agricultural products from the field. The crop is typically either picked up from a windrow, which has been laid by other machinery, or directly cut from the ground. Such harvesting devices generally include a tine reel having a plurality of tines or sets of tines spaced along a transverse axis that engage the agricultural product near the ground and propel it up over the reel and rearward. The crop is delivered from the head to a conveying system and to further processing machinery where some crops, such as hay are baled or chopped further. Hay mergers have a fundamentally different head that includes conveyors associated with the reels that transport hay to one end or the other for creating windrows. Other crops are delivered as cut to storage bins on the harvester or to trucks and/or trailers.
In a conventional mounting configuration, the tines mount along bars extending along the width of the reel. The tines may become damaged or suffer from wear and are advantageously configured for quick and easy removal and replacement. It is also important for the tines to flex sufficiently to reduce breakage. Tines are made of materials that provide for a degree of pivoting and/or bending should the tines engage the ground or other obstructions in the path of the harvester.
A common mounting configuration includes a tine assembly with a pair of tines sharing a mount that is attached with a bolt or other conventional devices to the reel bars. Such designs provide for faster mounting and removal of tines, leading to quicker maintenance and decreasing down time for the machine. Guards, also known as strippers, are spaced intermediate the sets of tines and generally wrap around the majority of the reel. The head may become damaged due to striking uneven terrain, rocks and other debris in its path. The guards act as a shield for the head and help to direct the crop and other matter to prevent damage to the interior elements of the reel and to maintain a clear material flow path.
Although double-tine designs have proven to provide an effective tine system, further improvements are possible. Such double tine assemblies may utilize a metal U-shaped element to form each tine pair with the inner portions of the tines set in a molded rubber base. However, such a design may not provide optimum flexing between the two tines of each assembly. Therefore, rocks and other debris may be picked up and fed through the agricultural machinery along with the agricultural products. Such debris may cause damage to other components and systems and may require extra inspection and cleaning to ensure a contaminant free product. The tine assemblies may not provide sufficient axial pivoting or flexure and/or adequate lateral flexure between the tine pair without breaking the mounting portion.
Some prior art tine designs may provide satisfactory pivoting or flexure about the head axis; these designs typically suffer from insufficient lateral flexure between the tines of the two tine assembly to keep the tines rotating in the same plane. To overcome such problems, some designs incorporate an external guide for reinforcement on the two tine assembly to prevent lateral flexure. However, the external guides increase the complexity and costs of the heads.
It can be seen that a new and improved system for mounting tines to reel bars of agricultural machinery with an improved tine design is needed. Such a system should provide an inexpensive, durable and lightweight tine system with simple mounting providing quick and easy replacement. Such a tine system should provide for mounting the tines as tine assemblies to the reel with each assembly having a pair of tines. The tines should provide sufficient stiffness to pick up the desired agricultural products while flexing relative to one another about the reel axis to avoid picking up rocks and other debris. A tine assembly should minimize the amount of lateral flexure to prevent a tine from crossing into an adjacent slot and maintain the tines in a straight path between the correct guides or strippers without the need for external guides. The present invention addresses these as well as other problems associated with harvester tines.